Policies and ideas that divide South Africans by race drive a wedge into our common interest and weaken our chances of success as a society.
In the blizzard of news – and the immediacy of horrors we often witness online as they happen – it can be difficult to perceive the pervasive influence of good ideas in generally improving the human condition.
The helter-skelter of life doesn’t always allow for a cooler appreciation of the longer view, but it’s one that is usefully provided by psycholinguist and public intellectual Steven Pinker.
In his survey of the march of reason, Pinker encapsulates the force of good ideas in modern history with the following summary: Tribal warfare of the past was nine times as deadly as war and genocide in the 20th century; the murder rate in medieval Europe was more than thirty times what it is today; slavery, sadistic punishments, and frivolous executions were unexceptionable features of life for millennia, then were suddenly abolished; wars between developed countries have vanished, and even in the developing world, wars kill a fraction of the numbers they did a few decades ago; and rape, hate crimes, deadly riots, child abuse are all substantially down.
The glut of mostly negative impressions on which we feed in a media-saturated world makes it hard to give credence to Pinker’s perhaps seemingly incredible synopsis.
What’s often harder is appreciating what it takes, or recognising that it doesn’t happen on its own.
Indeed, as American policy analyst Marian L Tupy of Washington’s Cato Institute wrote last year, the ‘danger lies in turning our backs on the means by which problems can be solved – reason, science, open discourse, thirst for knowledge’, and particularly at a time when Enlightenment values ‘are under assault from the far Left and the far Right’.
As we well know from our own modern history, acquiescence and inaction guarantee not merely stasis – the preservation of some sort of order, even if it is undesirable – but decline and heightened crisis.
All these phenomena and ideas are pressingly relevant to South Africa today, for we are a society being led away from where we want to be. You could be forgiven for thinking that that doesn’t sound right – we are a democracy, after all. And don’t the people lead?
The problem – as my colleague, Institute of Race Relations (IRR) head of policy research Anthea Jeffery, has pointed out – is that the greater force of South African opinion is not reflected in election results, certainly not the May poll.
In the last election, the ANC gained its 57.5% majority, Jeffery writes, ‘with the support of only 26.5% of all eligible voters (both registered and unregistered). Some 10 million people voted for the ANC at the national level, but double that number – more than 20 million – chose to stay away from the polls rather than endorse the ruling party or its policies’.
Conceivably, this wouldn’t matter if the ANC’s policies were broadly aligned with the sentiments of the society it is determined to impose them on.
But they are not. We know this from our own polling.
Only this week, the IRR released a report on polling conducted late last year which tells us a lot about the thinking of most South Africans who form what we call a ‘moderate majority’ and whose ideals, hopes and aspirations are very similar, despite supposed divisions of race and class.
This report, the latest in our series of Hope Reports, is meaningfully titled Unite the Middle, which sums up the basis of the IRR’s newest campaign to strengthen the march of progress in our society.
As Jeffery, the author of the report, writes, the IRR’s polling results show that ‘most black South Africans have little interest in land reform, for only 2% think that “speeding up land reform” should be a top priority for the government. In addition, a mere 1% want the government to focus on “speeding up affirmative action”, while 75% want merit-based job appointments and a mere 17% support race quotas in sport. Most have little faith in the capacity of current BEE policies to help them get ahead, with 85% saying that tax-funded vouchers for schooling, housing and health care would be more effective in helping them advance.
‘Instead, most black South Africans (57%) see “more jobs and better education” as the best way to improve their lives, while 74% identify this as the key to overcoming inequality. Most (86%) believe the different races need each other to make progress, while 64% think race relations have improved since 1994. By contrast, only 2% say that “fighting racism” should be the government’s top priority.’
The potential of such unanimity is encouraging, but we are challenged to act on it. We cannot afford – as Tupy cautioned – to turn our backs on the means to achieve progress.
What is required is captured in our Unite the Middle pledge on our website; achieving our potential as a free, open and prospering society is ‘only possible if the moderate middle of South Africans stand united’.
It means taking a stand with us ‘against race-based policies and race-baiting and racial nationalist incitement’; encouraging individuals and organisations to join in forming a ‘broad common front’; and calling out any firm or organisation ‘that discriminates on the basis of race’.
Policies and ideas that divide South Africans by race drive a wedge into our common interest and weaken our chances of success as a society.
As our pledge expresses it:
Policies that discriminate along lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity have no place in a free and open society;
Race, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity do not determine your social and economic status or your political opinions or commitment to South Africa’s success;
People and organisations that seek to drive racial divisions should be called out and called to account for the damage they are doing to South Africa’s social fabric;
It is good and right to help disadvantaged people, particularly given the history of our country, but empowerment policies must be based on actual established socio-economic disadvantage and not on the race of their beneficiaries;
Real empowerment can only occur in a high-growth economy that creates jobs and respects property rights while allowing individuals greater control of the schools, police stations, and hospitals in their community;
I stand with the moderate majority of South Africans who want to work together to build a prosperous country for all who live in it.
It is one thing to believe all this, and know that most South Africans do, too – but it will take courage to stand up for it.
Morris is head of media at the IRR
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